1)
With the semi-finals of the cruiserweight division of the World Boxing Super Series coming up a week from Saturday, the three of the four titles that were vacated by Oleksandr Usyk were still open for a new champion.
The WBA had already handed their title to Denis Lebedev, a long-time favorite of theirs, but the other three still needed to be filled.
Surprisingly two of the three have stepped up with decisions that made sense with an opening for the third to take advantage of a situation for next weekend as well and if everything falls into place, the winner of the tournament will hold three of the four titles and boxing will avoid the usual chaos that unfolds when a unified champion vacates his titles.
First, the WBC announced that the winner of the Mairis Breidis-Krzysztof Glowacki would be their champion and on the same day, the WBO stated that they had elevated Glowacki to their full champion from one of their minor titles.
With that decision, two of the four championships would be unified with the conclusion of their bout and with the WBA with Lebedev, only the IBF belt remains vacant and they have a terrific opportunity for next weekend as well.
The top two contenders for their title actually face in the other semi-final as Andrew Tabiti (1) and Yunier Dorticos (3) (There is not a number two contender at this writing) and the IBF could rule that their bout could be for their title.
That makes sense and would then have the winner of the tournament hold three titles and be the legitimate ruler of the division.
For once, things could actually work out well for boxing.
2)
Zab Judah returns to action tonight at the age of 41 against the "Hebrew Hammer" Cletus Seldin in New York.
Judah, whos career that was filled with several highs and lows, but for the most part for such a talented fighter never seemed to live up to his talent, has fought just two times in the last six years and you would think would have ring rust, but I think if Judah has even half of his toolbox remaining, he should have more than enough to defeat the limited Seldin.
Seldin has more than enough power to hurt Judah, should Judah not have the ability to stay away from him, so there is some intrigue here, but I still wonder about Judah with a win or loss as a win might see him step up in competition at 41 and despite the ability that he once had, could get hurt.
3)
I also love the July 27th junior welterweight title in Arlington, Texas between WBC champion Jose Ramirez and WBO titlist Maurice Hooker for two reasons.
I love the 140-pound division being down to two champions with this winner having two titles and the WBSS final unifying the WBA championship of Regis Prograis with that of IBF king Josh Taylor with hopes that the two winners can make a deal for a fully unified champion that would hopefully stick around for a while, but rarely happens.
I lean slightly toward Ramirez in this fight that could go either way, but that is mainly because Hooker has been recently having problems making weight.
A motivated and ready on the scales Hooker is more than capable of winning this one and it should be a really good one from Arlington, Texas.
4)
The second reason is Matchroom/DAZN and Top Rank/ESPN working together to make a fight that was made at the right time.
Top Rank allowed their guy (Ramirez) to fight on the opposing platform because it was the right thing for their fighter and boxing fans with the bonus of what their guy gains with a win.
Kudos to both sides for working together for the best for their fighter and with this cross-promotion and the recent common ground between Top Rank and PBC for Wilder-Fury II shows that this can be done when the will is available, but it does make me wonder one thing- If Top Rank and PBC can work together for Wilder-Fury, why not for Errol Spence vs Terence Crawford?
And perhaps there is more to the failure to sign that fight that everyone wants than just Bob Arum or Al Haymon?
5)
PBC announced their undercard for Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman and after the stink that still waifs through boxing from the terrible slate behind Errol Spence and Mikey Garcia have come through with a pretty strong supporting cast.
Yordanis Ugas, who just missed taking the WBC belt of Shawn Porter in his last fight (I scored the fight a draw) takes on Omar Figueroa, who once looked to be a future star before inactivity ate away at his career.
I really like that fight and the winner will likely be in a position to challenge someone for a title in the near future.
Former junior welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets battles John Molina in what should be a straight-ahead action fight.
Lipinets looked very impressive in mowing down Lamont Peterson and sending him into retirement, while Molina lost to Figueroa in his last fight, but has made a career of bobbing up when thought to be finished in the past.
In the opener, former bantamweight champions face off as exciting and undefeated bomber Luis Nery meets Juan Carlos Payano in what should be an interesting affair.
Payano was knocked out in one round by Naoya Inoue in the WBSS, so it will be interesting to see how Nery stacks up with Inoue as Inoue-Nery ranks with the best fights that boxing can make.
Terrific job by PBC bouncing back from their previous PPV undercard and I hope to see more like this as time goes by.
One for the road:
I wish I could say the same for the card offered by the same PBC for Fox two weeks later.
The main event features Adam Kownacki, who sells tickets and can be entertaining against the right level (and style) of heavyweight against washed up Chris Arreola, who I'm sure will offer the usual refrains of "best shape of my life, new this or new that has revitalized me" etc.
Should Arreola have anything left, this could be entertaining, but it's more likely to be a name for the Kownacki record as they attempt to keep him active before feeding him to Deontay Wilder.
Speaking of those "new me" statements, Andre Berto against Miguel Cruz fits that bill as well.
Actually, Berto uttered just those quotes in the fight announcement and entering the fight with a split decision loss to Devon Alexander that he didn't deserve and a stoppage loss to Shawn Porter, I'm not buying the 35-year-old Berto, although he is likely to be favored against Cruz, who has fought one opponent of note in losing a lopsided decision to Josesito Lopez in 2017.
The curtain-jerker isn't good either as Marcus Browne, who is in line for a light heavyweight title shot against Jean Pascal.
Browne looked very strong in dominating Badou Jack in January, while Pascal trudged through a decision loss to Dmitry Bivol and looked like a finished fighter while doing so.
I'm not sure what this fight does for Browne other than keep him active and for Pascal fighting a bigger and younger fighter is how aging fighters can get hurt.
I could use input on this, so feel free to let me know about the format and how often you might like to see this.
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